Why Beauty For Ashes?

  I suppose it is high time that I explain my title...  I became a Christian when I was very young, but let me say I didn't always act like one.  When I look at some of the childish and stupid things that I did I ask  "Why?  What would make me do such dumb things?"  I guess the answer is myself and my desires.  Yes, the devil tempted me, but he didn't sin for me.
 
  When I took classes at my church and got baptized, I still had a lot of growing to do.  God was pointing out things I needed to set straight. 

  Now He is still working in me.  I have such a far way to go.  I feel very small and incomplete. 

  Isaiah 61:2-4 New International Version (NIV)

² to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
    and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
³     and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
    instead of ashes,the oil of joy
    instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
    instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
    a planting of the Lord
    for the display of His splendor.

 

  This is why God changed me, for the display of His splendor!  It's not me, it's not anything I did, It's Christ's work and life in me.

 

Isaiah 64:6

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

 

  If I tried to be a Christian, without Jesus, I couldn't.  Christ gives me strength and life and beauty.  He is beauty!